Personal

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 64, 17 March 1942, Page 4

Personal

Lieutenant (temporary) M. G Bignelh of the Wanganui Battalion of the Home Guard has resigned his commission, according to the New Zealand Gazette. Squadron-Leader A. C. MacArthur. Flight-Lieutenant L. Lidgaro and Captain FI. A. Keith were in Wanganui yesterday as an Air Force Boarci ! to examine volunteers for the service They left later for Hawera, where they will sit to-day. Fill' T. H. S. Whilhey. grandson of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. West, Wilson Street., who has served with the R.N.Z.A.F. for two and a-half vears, has been discharged for medical reasons and has relumed to Wanganui. Mr. R. R. Dawson has been appointed controller of evacuation unde: ■lhe E.P.S. organisation in Wanganui. Fie is engineer to the Wanganui County Council and Wanganui Harbour Board. The choice was made ■ unanimously by the Wanganui Evacu- i ation Committee. Mr. W. Firmin, who is to enter 1 camp soon was the guest of honour i at a social gathering of members of the voluntary staff of the St. John I Free Ambulance and auxiliary transport section of the E.P.S., of which I he has been a member since its in- i ception. He was presented with a ' money belt by the chairman, Mr. W. I Martin. Mr. C. R. White, town clerk, Wanganui, and Mrs. White, have received private advice that their elder son, Pilot-Officer Campbell White, was shot down while engaged in air operations in the Far East, but is safe and well. Nearly two years have elapsed since he left. New Zealand, and in 12 months ho took part in 42 sweeps over France and Germanoccupied territory. He is a fighter pilot." Acting-Squadron-Leader Lloyd Walt. Coleman, D.F.C. and bar. has been killed in action, according to an Air Force casualty list. An old boy of the Wanganui Collegiate School, he was a son or Mrs. B. M. Coleman. Havelock North. Acting-Squadron-Leader Coleman received the D.F.C. for a raid on Munich in November. 1940 dropping what was at that time the heaviest bomb to have fallen on Germany. He was a flight-lieutenant at that. time. Later. Acting-Squadron-Leader Coleman was transferred to I Egypt, where his gallantry in May, 1942, earned nim the bar to the D.F.C. Fie was again transferred to Englang, and it was in subsequent, operations that he is reported to have lost his life. Acting-Squadron-Leader Coleman is survived by his mother, two brothens, and a sister, Miss H. Coleman London, who is engaged in war work. His father was killed in France in 1918. Mr. Frederick White, whose death occurred in Wanganui last week, was born in Wellington in 1886. He was educated at St. Patrick's College Wellington, where ho was captain ol the school cricket eleven and the Rugb” fifteen. He later played Rugby for the Athletic Club, Wellington. Mr. White followed the occupation of a dental mechanic for a number of years, both in Wellington and Wanganui. In 1915 he enlisted in the Fifth Reinforcements and saw service ■ in Gallipoli and France for thre n and a-half years. He was a member of the original Anzac Rugby football team which was formed at Malta after the Gallipoli campaign. Among the teams played were Eastern Telegraph, the Army, the Navy. and the French Naval Rugby representatives. Up till the time of his death Mr. White was keenly interested in cricket, playing for Marist juniors. He was also coach of the Marist. Junior Cricket Club. He is survived by a sister. Mrs. C. I. Spillane and a brother. Mr. Bert White, both of whom reside in Wanganui.